Fine Needle Aspiration in the Evaluation of Children With Peripheral Lymphadenopathy

Abstract

In a developing country like Pakistan fine needle aspiration is a simple, cheap and well-tolerated procedure. Two hundred and forty F.N.A’s were carried out during the 30 month period from April 1997 to October 1999. The ages of the patients ranged between 3 months to 16 years. There were 136 (56.6%) males and 104(43.3%) females. Most of the aspirated nodes were in the cervical region. Aspirated material in 12 cases 5%) was inadequate for cytologic diagnosis. In the remaining 228 cases, 129 (56.5%) were diagnosed as reactive lymphadenitis, 49 (31.5%) were tuberculous lymphadenitis, 29(12.7%) were chronic lymphadenitis, 12 (5.4%) were granulomatous lymphadenitis, 4 (1.8%) of Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 1 (0.41%) case each of Histiocytosis-X and Gaucher’s disease. Three cases
(1.3%) were suspicious for malignancy. FNAC of enlarged lymph nodes in children is a safe and reliable procedure that often obviates the need for an excisional biopsy.